This invention generally relates to displays for computer and data processing terminals, and more particularly to the electronic data management for a large plasma gas panel display.
The predominant display technology has been the cathode-ray tube (CRT). When flat panel matrix display technologies made their debut, it was expected that this compact-type device would revolutionize the packaging and appearance of display terminals, but this has happened only to a limited extent. There are several matrix-addressed display technologies presently in use: liquid crystals, light-emitting diodes, vacuum fluorescents, a.c. and d.c. plasmas and to a lesser degree a.c. and d.c. electroluminescents. The subject invention is directed to a.c. plasma display technology that provides a large screen, multiple image-format capability. The use of higher information content displays is advantageous for applications requiring the scanning of multiple pages of reference material and for cross-referencing multiple pages or frames of stored information.
The a.c. plasma display technology is a memory technology. Because of this characteristic of the technology, the maximum size, or maximum information content of the screen, is not limited by the device's luminance-voltage characteristic as is the case for refresh display devices, but is limited only by manufacturability considerations. The specific display used is a gas panel having a plurality of horizontal and vertical wires divided into odd and even groups which are physically addressable from opposite edges of the panel. This arrangement allows closer spacing of the wires and the electronic components that generate the driving voltages for the individual wires. The gas panel is an all points addressable device in which the display cells, located between the orthogonal conductor arrays, are individually and selectively addressable. An example of this technology is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,868 issued to Lamoureux et al and assigned to the assignee of the subject invention. A specific example of a gas panel which may be used with the present invention is the model 581 Plasma Display Subassembly available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) from the International Business Machines Corporation.